Freedom Fighters

A Nobel Prize for Hong Kong’s Democrats
By BARI WEISS

Leaders of the “Umbrella Movement” Nathan Law, left, and Joshua Wong, center, at a rally in Hong Kong on Wednesday. 

Here’s a suggestion for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, which opens its nominating season next month: Look to the three young men who earlier today became Hong Kong’s first prisoners of conscience.
In 2014, the courageous trio helped lead what become known as the Umbrella Movement — an enormous political protest defending Hong Kong’s freedoms from an increasingly aggressive Beijing. Like Andrei Sakharov, Vaclav Havel, Aung San Suu Kyi and so many dissidents that came before them, the men were hit with a bogus charge (“unlawful assembly”), were found guilty and served out their punishments last year.
But today, Hong Kong’s Department of Justice decided that those penalties were too lenient.
Joshua Wong, who burst onto the city’s political scene at 14 years old and is the public face of its democracy movement, was sentenced to six months. 

Nathan Law and Alex Chow were sentenced to seven and eight months, respectively. 

All three had budding political careers, but these new sentences bar them from running for public office for the next five years.
As Mr. Wong put it to a reporter from The New York Times before his sentencing: “The government wanted to stop us from running in elections and directly suppress our movement.” 

He added: “There’s no longer rule of law in Hong Kong. It’s rule by law.” 

Just so.
The implications of their imprisonment are monumental. 

Since Britain handed over jurisdiction of its former colony to China 20 years ago, the city has operated under the notion of “one country, two systems.” 

That increasingly appears to be an empty slogan. 

“The outcome isn’t just a travesty for these three peaceful pro-democracy activists or free speech — it’s also a painfully clear sign that Beijing’s political dictates are eating away at Hong Kong’s judiciary, an institution essential to the territory’s autonomy,” Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch, told me.
Derek Lam, Mr. Wong’s best friend and a key activist in the movement, put it even more bluntly in a call from Hong Kong: “The court of Hong Kong is a slave of the Chinese government.” 

He added: “The judge doesn’t acknowledge that democracy, freedom and human rights are the reasons Joshua is doing this. He just kept insisting that they were inciting violence.”

Mr. Lam, who aspires to become a pastor, could soon be accused of the same: Next month he faces sentencing for his role in a 2016 protest.

“I am heartbroken. All my friends went to jail today. I might join them next month,” he told me. 

“But we will never regret what we have done. What we are doing is correct. It is the truth. And we will persist.” 

That relentless spirit was echoed by Mr. Law, Mr. Chow and Mr. Wong today. 

As Mr. Wong, just 20 years old, put it on Twitter before he was jailed: “You can lock up our bodies, but not our minds! We want democracy in Hong Kong. And we will not give up.”
The battle these young people are waging is far bigger than their futures — or even than Hong Kong itself. 

They are among some of the most prominent leaders pushing an authoritarian China to honor its international and political commitments. 

Can a handful of Davids hold a Goliath to account? 

The imprimatur of a Nobel Prize would help.

Beijing’s Nobel Shame

Liu Xiaobo will be remembered long after Xi Jinping is forgotten.
The Wall Street Journal

Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, is suffering from late-stage liver cancer, the world learned Monday. 

His lawyer says China has granted Mr. Liu “medical parole,” and he is receiving treatment in a Shenyang hospital. 

But Beijing can’t shirk responsibility for his condition, which should have been treated aggressively earlier, and for his years of incarceration and separation from his family, which were a cruel injustice.
China imprisoned Mr. Liu in 2008 and sentenced him to 11 years in prison for “incitement to subversion of state power.” 

His crime? 

He helped write Charter 08, a peaceful call for political reform signed by thousands of Chinese. 

The manifesto was based on Charter 77, a Soviet-era human-rights petition written by Czech dissidents including Vaclav Havel.
As the Nobel citation noted, “Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China’s own constitution and fundamental human rights.” 

Beijing continues to imprison anyone who protests its failure to abide by its own laws.
China also tries to punish foreign individuals and institutions that expose its human-rights abuses. 

That includes the nation of Norway, home to the Nobel Committee. 

After Mr. Liu won the Peace Prize, which is administered by a private foundation, Beijing curtailed diplomatic relations and trade on grounds that Norway had honored a “criminal.” 

Chinese authorities also put his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest. 

Such ruthlessnees is a hallmark of the current generation of Chinese Communist rulers.
The world heard nothing directly from Mr. Liu during his nine years in prison, but his wife spoke to him shortly after his sentencing. 

“When he decides to do something, he doesn’t regret it,” she said. 

“He said he hopes to be the last person punished for practicing freedom of expression.” 

Long after the Communist Party is discarded and Xi Jinping is forgotten, Mr. Liu will be remembered as an historic figure in the fight for Chinese freedom.

Kowtowing to China’s despots is morally wrong

Czech president scrapped Holocaust survivor medal due to Dalai Lama
By Robert Muller

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama gestures during a teaching event in Milan, Italy October 21, 2016. 

Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman

PRAGUE -- Czech President Milos Zeman decided against awarding a state medal to a Holocaust survivor after the man's nephew, a Czech government minister, met exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama against the president's wishes, the minister said on Friday.
The Czech Republic has been engulfed in political furor over the Dalai Lama's meetings this week with Culture Minister Daniel Herman against the wishes of the Chinese government -- which sees the Dalai Lama as a separatist -- and Zeman, who has strongly pushed for a closer economic relationship with China.
The drive to focus on Chinese investments has met opposition from many corners of the EU member country whose post-communist policy set by the late leader Vaclav Havel strongly promoted human rights. 

Havel was a friend of the Tibetan monk and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Herman confirmed in a text message to Reuters that the president's office had requested he cancel his meeting with the Tibetan monk or his uncle would not be granted an award.
Herman's uncle George Brady, 88, was supposed to receive the honor for his lifelong campaign for Holocaust remembrance at an annual celebration at Prague Castle, the seat of the president, next Friday on Czech state day.
Brady survived Nazi persecution, including the death camp at Auschwitz, where his sister and parents perished.
"My uncle informed me he had been contacted by the president's office with information that his award was being prepared. Now there is news that this has been postponed for this year," Herman told Reuters.
Asked if he was given an ultimatum not to meet the Dalai Lama in connection with the award, he said: "Yes."
A spokesman for Zeman declined to comment directly on Herman's statement. 

He said the president had completed the list of nominees "some time ago" and had not subsequently dropped anyone.
The office never releases the names of the recipients of the state medals before the traditional ceremony.
George Brady moved to Canada after the war. 

In 2000, a suitcase with his sister Hana's name surfaced in a Tokio Holocaust Museum, whose director discovered her relation to George. 

Hana's suitcase later inspired a book, theater play and a film.